Trade Secret as Intellectual Property Strategic Tool in Industry 4.0 Prity Khastgir TCIS India, Level-5, Caddie Commercial Tower, Novotel Hotel, Hospitality District Aerocity, IGI Airport, New Delhi 110037 India khasip@khastgir.com Abstract -- In covid situation, most businesses have reviewed their existing contracts to understand scope of parties involved and thereby Intellectual Property clauses and sub-clauses of any contract or agreement become very important. Private blockchain implementation in the current scenario is key to the maze to protect trade secrets in a confidential manner. Progressive IP strategy and partnering with right partners to create and maintain sustainable development positions in the market to serve customers and catering to their needs is the need of the hour. Proactive strategic signed contracts and agreements should be mandatory for smooth functioning of any start-up or enterprise. Negotiation, Mediation and Arbitration are like trinity in law to resolve any arising conflict. Keywords: Intellectual Property, Trade secrets protection, Blockchain implementation, Industry 4.0, Public domain I. INTRODUCTION EVERY technology launch contributes to macroeconomic growth of the country. Contracts and agreements drafted around technology licensing or assignments play a pivotal role as to how developed innovation would be deployed in different verticals. Over the last one decade, we have witnessed a very strong nonlinear curve and especially with what forms part of terms and conditions to exert control over under applicable contract law while collaborating with different parties to manage successful ventures in Industry 4.0 operating in multiple jurisdictions and protecting trade secrets. Primarily, contracts and proper agreements in place sets the ambit right to protect trade secrets of technology driven startup ventures. Understanding Intellectual property landscape and conducting IP due-diligence is very important and is essentially a first step to understand short-term and long-term goals to prepare rock solid IP strategy with a holistic viewpoint. Intellect is the creation of the mind and protecting intellectual capacity by utilizing different IPRs is key to deliver market cap results. In covid situation, most businesses have reviewed their existing contracts to understand scope of parties involved and thereby Intellectual Property clauses and sub-clauses of any

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AKGEC INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 12, No. 1
Abstract -- In covid situation, most businesses have reviewed
their existing contracts to understand scope of parties involved
and thereby Intellectual Property clauses and sub-clauses of any
contract or agreement become very important. Private blockchain
implementation in the current scenario is key to the maze to
protect trade secrets in a confidential manner.
Progressive IP strategy and partnering with right partners to
create and maintain sustainable development positions in the
market to serve customers and catering to their needs is the need
of the hour. Proactive strategic signed contracts and agreements
should be mandatory for smooth functioning of any start-up or
enterprise. Negotiation, Mediation andArbitration are like trinity
in law to resolve any arising conflict.
Keywords: Intellectual Property, Trade secrets protection, Blockchain
implementation, Industry 4.0, Public domain
I. INTRODUCTION
EVERY technology launch contributes to macroeconomic
growth of the country. Contracts and agreements drafted around
technology licensing or assignments play a pivotal role as to
how developed innovation would be deployed in different
verticals. Over the last one decade, we have witnessed a very
strong nonlinear curve and especially with what forms part of
terms and conditions to exert control over under applicable
contract law while collaborating with different parties to
manage successful ventures in Industry 4.0 operating in
multiple jurisdictions and protecting trade secrets.
Primarily, contracts and proper agreements in place sets the
ambit right to protect trade secrets of technology driven start-
up ventures. Understanding Intellectual property landscape and
conducting IPdue-diligence is very important and is essentially
a first step to understand short-term and long-term goals to
prepare rock solid IP strategy with a holistic viewpoint.
Intellect is the creation of the mind and protecting intellectual
capacity by utilizing different IPRs is key to deliver market cap
results. In covid situation, most businesses have reviewed their
existing contracts to understand scope of parties involved and
thereby Intellectual Property clauses and sub-clauses of any
Trade Secret as Intellectual Property Strategic
Tool in Industry 4.0
Prity Khastgir
TCIS India, Level-5, Caddie Commercial Tower, Novotel Hotel, Hospitality District Aerocity,
IGI Airport, New Delhi 110037 India
khasip@khastgir.com
contract or agreement become very important which would be
helpful to set out the liabilities of the parties and individual party
to the agreement to protect information under “trade secret”
clause. Generally, sharing technical knowledge, experience,
skill know-how and associated flow processes to define the
ambit of any business model forms important clauses and sub-
clauses while drafting different contracts.
Trust is a very important factor to keep trade-secret in a
confidential manner. Classifying information among the
individuals to develop trust between the individuals and
strategies deployed to keep disclosure of information relating
to a trade secret confidential is key to define trust. Private
blockchain implementation in the current scenario is key to
the maze to protect trade secrets in a confidential manner.
Blockchain implementation creates transparency and trust
between the parties to provide clarity as to who owns what
aspect of Intellectual Property Right.
Progressive IP strategy and partnering with right partners to
achieve SDG 17 to create and maintain sustainable development
positions in the market to serve customers and catering to their
needs is the need of the hour.
II. PROTECTING TRADE SECRETS IN INDIA
Trade secret protection in any jurisdiction is only invoked
once cause of action in law is explained with facts. Vague
contracts and agreements are the main causes and challenges
while litigating issues of violation of trade secrets before the
courts. If any kind of injunction order is sought with respect
to trade secrets before the courts, the ownership of specific
trade secrets has to be disclosed with sufficient exhibits to
show the intent of the parties in question of wilful disclosure
of trade-secrets, if any.
To obviate this challenge organizing in-house sensitization
programs and strategic interactions with key employees should
be well documented to create valid contracts and agreements.
In many cases getting a no-objection certificate (NOC) while
switching employment is a good step for both employer and
employee.

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In Industry 4.0, most of the cases related to trade secret theft
pending before courts generally come under the ambit of the
Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Competition Act,
2002. Trade secret theft includes data related to proprietary
information which might cover invented technologies,
industrial designs, brand strategies, customer acquisition
strategies, trade secrets/Know-how and related processes.
Restraining any third party when trade secret theft has been
established in court of law takes into consideration intent of
the parties in question, time frames and different contracts and
agreements submitted as Exhibits acts as data matrix for in-
depth analysis. Many times when facts of the case in question
are absolute a decree for permanent injunction and damages
as valued for the purposes of the suit and for loss of sales,
reputation and good will is looked into with hawk eye approach.
For example, strategically nowadays most of the internet driven
technology unicorn business models create Intellectual Property
portfolios with special focus on trademarks as it is easy to
establish profit and loss data with respect to customer brand
acquisition cost which is a new age rule book.
The success rate of establishing trade secret theft depends on a
number of factors and the most important factor is disclosure
of data in the public domain.
Public domain is defined in Black s Law Dictionary, Eighth
Edition at page 1265 thus:-
When copyright, trademark, patent, or trade-secret rights
are lost or expire, the intellectual property they had
protected becomes part of the public domain and can be
appropriated by anyone without liability for infringement.
Public domain is the status of an invention, creative work,
commercial symbol, or any other creation that is not protected
by any form of intellectual property. Public domain is the rule:
intellectual property is the exception.
Dates of execution of contracts and filing of suit before court
become very important from the point of view to establish
intent in good faith of even claiming trade secret theft. For
example, a manufacturing contract is signed between two or
more parties and one of the parties files a patent application
to protect the invention. According to Indian patent laws, the
patent application becomes a public disclosure once published.
So, if the date of trade secret theft is established before the
publication of the patent application then the suit in question
has a good success rate. In our current practice, we observed
that well-defined tailor-made definitions in contracts and
agreements is a good pro-active strategy.
III. FUTURE OF TRADE SECRET
REGULATION IN INDIA
To regulate any economy proactive checklists are very
important parameters to regulate the economy and especially
where technology is changing at rapid pace and different global
entities are working together to pool their resources.
Even in the current scenario internet technology enterprises
are working together to achieve their business goals in short
span to create customer experience. Establishing ownership
is key in determining who owns the trade-secrets and is an
extremely valuable resource to stay ahead and be a constructive
game changer.
Coding or compilation of big data is not a public disclosure and
the owner takes proactive measures to safeguard those coding
data matrices. Blockchain implementation in this case scenario
is key to the maze to keep big data as confidential information.
Nevertheless, technology has to marry jurisprudence and new
age regulations should be drafted to protect trade-secrets as a
whole.
In the current and future scenario, proactive strategic signed
contracts and agreements should be mandatory for smooth
functioning of any start-up or enterprise. For example,
Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with well-defined
time period to test the waters should be the first essential key
element to determine terms and conditions of subsequent

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contracts between the parties. Licensing agreements defining
calculations of royalty terms is a good practice and a clever
strategy to obviate any kind of litigation. To create a holistic
and win-win approach, renewal period terms of the licensing
agreements should be flexible and in alignment with short term
goals of the parties to the contract.
Dispute resolution clauses and sub-clauses form a strong base
to resolve disputes and especially IP disputes. Negotiation,
Mediation and Arbitration are like trinity in law to resolve any
arising conflict during the term of the contract or agreement
between the parties.
“There is no scale to measure disruptions happening in Industry
4.0, where technology is evolving at a rapid pace beyond
human imagination and that is what Blockchain and Big Data
analysis is all about.”
REFERENCE
[1] J. Thomas McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair
Competition 1.01[2], at 1-3 (3d ed. 1996).
Ms. Prity Khastgir (b.26 Dec 1984) is Director
and chief research strategic officer at TCIS, India.
Patent attorney and business strategist with 15+ yrs
of experience, represents global clients to secure
their IP rights in India. Working on Sustainable
Development Goals mission projects on ad hoc
basis with ITU, Geneva and WIPO, Geneva as
technology strategist.
An international speaker facilitating workshops
globally on alignment of strategic aspects of
amalgamating brand strategy and IPRs to create strong IP portfolios, using
Blockchain as a service (BAAS) in different sectors, especially in healthcare
and pharmaceutical sector in Industry 4 Spectrum Era.
Transforming information into a more plausible understanding data matrix
is her USP.
Facilitated innovative digital skills and technology education through UN
training programs designed to address human and technical capacity challenges
with special focus on generating Innovations to drive GDP in Industry 4.0.
Trained over 10K+ scholars.